Saturn Jupiter Square ~ Old Gods, New Story
This is coming up again soon 24–25 December.
[Originally published on my Substack 26 July 2024 read it here Jupiter -Saturn square.] And also please be aware I am not a world astrologer and I’m not that interested in making predecitions. These posts are mostly about how astrology themes and symbols can bring soul healing when you develop your own relationship with it.
Saturn and Jupiter Square starts late July and perfects 17 to 24 August and again 25 to 26 of December 2024. Perfects again in June 2025 in cardinal signs Aries and Cancer.
Before we begin, in case you don’t already know I write long, fascinating essays about astrology themes and how they can improve your life.
What are the themes and narratives relating to the square between Jupiter and Saturn?
Since this is a long aspect this will be an important subtext in the current story. And with Mars coming into the picture mid August to get the ball rolling, its a great time to get a better understanding of the current state of play.
How will these themes show up for you?
Get your whole sign charts out now and make a note of where Gemini and Pisces are (what houses) then write the dates in as above.
Dark & Light
Let’s start at the beginning. Ancient myth-makers understood that the universe was created from the balance between opposites and that it continues to manifest from the tension between opposing forces. The most primordial duality is the balance between light and dark, night and day.
Light symbolises life, and all that is good and wholesome, while darkness is the realm of demonic forces, death and the unknowable. Yet we cannot have one without the other. Most myth traditions embody these ideas, and it is intrinsic to the philosophical structure of astrology for instance the duality between good and bad, negative and positive. These are two sides of the same coin, two extremes of the same paradigm.
Since the dawn of astrology over two and half thousand years ago, Saturn has been identified as malefic because it is visibly dark, while Jupiter is large and bright, therefore benefic.
The creation mythology of Ancient Greece is woven from this metaphysical, philosophical idea. The original sky god Ouranos (Uranus), who was made of air and light, was one of the first two beings to emerge from chaos. The other primordial being was Gaia, Mother Earth, twisting and turning in an eternal embrace with Ouranos. When Earth and Sky separated their children were born and life flourished.
Their first-born son Cronos (Saturn) castrated his father with a sickle made of diamonds and became the new sky god, ruler of all. Then Zeus (Jupiter), Shining Sky went to war against his father becoming the new sky father, the universal ruler of all in the lineage of Greek gods.
Sky gods in most myth traditions were venerated as a generative god who fertilised the earth to begin creation. They were typically seen as dispassionate, remote and impartial towards the earthly realms.
An or Anu (Sky) in the oldest known myths from Mesopotamia, became aloof and uninvolved, an invisible entity, after his sons usurped his power. He came to embody infallibility and omniscience, like the all-encompassing sky, the ideal judge and lawmaker. His shrines were oracular centres and his seven children — the Anunaki, ruled over them as the seven judges of law.
Incidentally our current Western religious system is descended from this concept of the omnipotent, disinterested patriarchal sky god.
Why is this relevant?
The narrative of the war between opposites can be interpreted as the cycles of dark and light eternally seeking balance. Saturn — dark, Jupiter — Light, among many other binary pairs such as expansion and contraction, merging and separating.
And in astrology Jupiter and Saturn are still closely entwined with qualities such as omnipotence, omniscience, detachment and judgement.
The square configuration is another iteration of the conversation between Jupiter and Saturn, these primordial sky-father archetypes, that began in 2020.
They join every 20 years, a very significant epoch, often defined by social, political and cultural changes. Whether or not you personally felt the impact of the events of 2020, in some way they will have altered the way you see the world, and your beliefs about it.
In a very general way we can look at the square as showing us how much we have changed, adapted and evolved since then.
I remember the year 2000 and the year 1980, as having a feeling of newness and differentness, and maybe we are all still trying to make sense of what happened in 2020 and the world we subsequently live in.
Mundane prediction is not my thing. There are many astrologers who are specialising in this area, and are very good at it. But sometimes it’s fun to look at the astrology after the event and its often surprising to see how archetypes and planetary configurations weave a narrative around us and through us. This is how we learn.
So there’s a good chance that we are likely to revisit themes relating to 2020 as the Jupiter-Saturn 20 year cycle comes to its first significant crises point.
How did events of 2020 change the way you see the world?
Lets pull out some of the relevant significations of Saturn and Jupiter to get a better understanding of the archetypal landscape we currently find ourselves in. When we can’t see the forest for the trees, luckily we have astrology to help us get a bigger view.
Saturn
Saturn is the planet that wants us to establish a firm, stable and enduring reality. A base, a foundation of certainty on which to stand.
Saturn operates through boundaries, definitions and limits — Capricorn. And concepts relating to knowledge systems, ideology, definitions, laws and judgement — Aquarius.
Saturn in your horoscope is the story of how you define who you are, and the boundaries or limits of your reality. They are the building blocks of your life.
Saturn helps you make important judgements about your place in the world and how you live. This is me, this is not-me.
Saturn is often described as a teacher, and the hard lessons delivered to us through the university of life. As anyone who has undertaken a Phd or Masters thesis you will understand the diligence, commitment and persistence required to achieve your degree, a very Saturn metaphor.
You might have noticed how Saturn’s growth cycles occur at seven year intervals; ages 7, 14, 21 and 28 being critically important stages in maturity, and our social development. So these are boundaries, or mini-epochs defining how we mature, what’s expected of us and how we should live.
In myth Saturn is the old god Cronos, Father Time, the stern old man who stands at the threshold with his sickle-shaped knife, measuring and cutting revolutions of time into portions.
These are discrete chunks of history upon which we might base our view of the world. These might be organised into patterns of repetition, that can either reinforce or break up, what we think of as true and real.
For instance the narrative around which we order our lives is based on the stories told to us, the ones we inherit from our culture, or our family traditions. Saturn ensures that we embody the story, and so it becomes the story of your life, your world view.
In a more tangible way these are established as the fences around our property, the skin of our bodies, the walls of our home, the geographic features around our town, state or region, or the border around our country. They are as important to us as the conceptual boundaries we put around our social or political groups. And being under the auspices of Saturn they are there to support and protect us, to provide a framework for belonging and sense-making, despite the limitations we must live within.
The scarcity myth offers an example of how belief and reality go hand in hand in Saturn’s paradigm. Saturn loves austerity, thrift, and the perception of value accumulated over time. Our economic and political system (a Capricorn structure) is based on the notion of scarcity. Without it money would have no value.
Competition and individualism become necessary, are indeed natural human virtues, like productivity, which we need to live successfully. Also Saturnian in nature is the culture of fear, anxiety, struggle and adversity that the scarcity myth propagates.
What happens when you alter, expand or adjust your beliefs? Will your values change? Are you able to conceptualise other realities? Other possibilities?
Jupiter
Jupiter is often considered to be the polar opposite of Saturn. Where Saturn contracts, consolidates and defines, limits and restricts, Jupiter will expand and inflate. This is just one way of looking at Jupiter and Saturn.
Beliefs, especially religious, cultural or philosophical concepts, are also assigned to Jupiter. These significators show up in Jupiter’s sign Sagittarius, a sign also associated with learning, teaching and higher education especially in a more formal sense.
Pompous self-righteousness, political zealotry, evangelical crusades belong here too, so it’s not all rosy where Jupiter is concerned. Both Jupiter and Saturn have deep shadows.
Our core values and ideals are very much inherited from our family and shaped by culture; social norms, our religious beliefs, our justice system and education system through to university, and the moral and ethical standards drummed into us from a young age.
Where Jupiter is in your chart points to how you experience and express this paradigm. More so than Saturn, Jupiter inspires meaning and a sense of belonging.
We buy into a set of virtues, or we choose to believe in something higher or better because then we belong to this special club, school of thought or field of knowledge. The strength of your personal morality shows up in your Jupiter place.
Sometimes Jupiter can be a powerful, charismatic leader or teacher. Jupiter will put a crown on their head and bestow them with the voice of authority. And much like the royal family there is an aura of pageantry and drama to support it.
These beliefs and ideals are transcendent in a way that governs our lives. Like joining a cult or going to war, we seem to be easily manipulated and controlled by our beliefs to the point of dying for them.
This can lead us into a cognitive dissonance, a double-think where we are capable of holding to beliefs that are opposed to each other. Religious and spiritual practices might call this faith, which is signified by Jupiter’s other sign Pisces — a sign which dissolves our sense of individuality, blurs the boundaries of our ego and asks us to rise above adversity.
Our Pisces sign is where we long for an ideal; a dream life or a glamorous career, we obsess over celebrities and movie stars, or we surrender our autonomy to a spiritual or religious figure for the sake of moral purity.
Pisces is the place of spiritual transcendence and Jupiter’s position will embody this story in your life, for better or worse.
Interpreting the Signs
Pisces
Pisces, on the mutable angle, is the sign to watch with both Saturn and Neptune transiting toward each other. It seems so portentous and significant that they don’t meet in Pisces. Saturn finally catches up with Neptune just as they leave this sign, on the cusp of Aries in June 2025, tracking together for about another twelve months after that. I will be writing more about this powerful conjunction, and the astrology around it, which looks so intriguing. There is so much we can learn in advance that will help us understand and prepare for it.
So although Saturn is in a superior position, it is in Jupiter’s domicile — Pisces. Saturn is forced to behave in a more Jupiter-like way, and is unable to compromise or agree with Jupiter. Saturn as a cold-hearted father figure, can no longer be the voice of authority.
He can’t be the ruler of the universe, the head of the house, the boss of everything. Residing in the house of Jupiter he is unable to make the rules, he has been emasculated, so to speak, by his Son and rival. Truth and reality are not that clear, or obvious.
We might expect the usual boundaries, mandates and limits that we have become accustomed to since the 2020 conjunction to be softer, our security and stability also more unreliable. As Saturn and Neptune draw closer they might even dissolve altogether. The mutable angle being flexible and changeable. What we think of as concrete reality might turn out to be fluid and slippery, more a question of faith rather than experience.
Yet what we believe in, our personal truth, the values and ideals we live by, the dreams we imagine and long for — could not be more important right now, because it is with them that we will create a new reality, a new earth, a new story. They are Saturn’s materials.
As Saturn and Neptune join in Aries next year, this feeling of newness will be hard to miss. It will feel like you have just woken up from a vivid dream.
Where is Pisces in your chart? What is your dream/ideal reality? Can you visualise or imagine it?
Gemini
Jupiter at the mutable square angle in Gemini is at odds with Saturn in other ways also. While it is not as adversarial as the opposition, the 90 degree angle is saying there has to be change.
The square makes it hard to find a compromise, which throws us off course or plants impossible obstacles on the path to our goal.
If Jupiter is the son who challenges the father’s authority, the father’s supremacy, then we could see a decisive departure from the old and traditional.
Potentially, the idealism of youth (Gemini) overcomes the rigidity of tradition. A new regime arises to challenge the previous one, a new idea is born and rewrites the world of meaning, culture, or religion.
Because Gemini is an air sign it is mostly concerned with cerebral matters such as ideas and concepts. It is pragmatic and practical, solutions-orientated, which is not a happy feeling for Jupiter, who prefers the grandiosity of expansive and eloquent theories and the spiritual meanings we attach to them.
Jupiter is taking charge of defining how we make sense of our lives. It seems likely we will need to let go of some ideas about who we are and what we believe. We might need to learn a new language, or unlearn something we took for granted. To get ready to see something in another light or change our minds about something we thought was fundamental.
Everything that is funnelled through Gemini, including Jupiter, will use language, writing, stories, speaking, dialogue, paper work, computer tech, transactions, phones and other devices, books, translation, and so on to get a message across.
And so we might see how language and culture will reshape how we see the world and give it meaning. Situations arise that require you to heed the voice of wisdom, or the voice of authority. Or to disregard it. To ignore common sense or to rebel against tradition.
We cannot change the world in which we find ourselves until we are able to write a new story.
The square perfects again in new signs, Cancer and Aries, which are Cardinal signs. Something new wants to be born. Will the old god be replaced by a new authority? Will a new earth coalesce from the primordial soup of our imagination? It think its time.
Either way, the hard angle represents a crises of some sort, a crises that has its roots back in 2020.
